University of St. Joseph (USJ) says it's collaborating with a New Haven nonprofit to launch Greater Hartford's first certification programs to prepare students for careers in blockchain technologies.

USJ announced Tuesday it's partnering with educational developer group DappDevs to develop two certification programs as businesses expand their use of blockchain, a decentralized digital ledger of transactions.

The West Hartford-based school, which began enrolling male students this fall, is rolling out a four-week, pre-certificate blockchain program, meant for faculty, current college students or graduates, on Feb. 2. Weekly sessions will last three hours.

Weeks after, USJ will begin a six-week certification program running from March 5 to April 11. The program will host two three-hour sessions each week.

Program participants will learn how businesses and individuals are using blockchain technology in large commercial financial transactions and individual transactions, school officials said.

Students will also learn about how to develop DApps, a decentralized application using blockchain for data storage and other functions.

USJ says the certificate programs also meet a local and national need for blockchain-related jobs.

LinkedIn reported a 400 percent increase in job postings related to blockchain from 2016 to 2017. The demand for blockchain jobs soared by 700 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to the social network platform.

In Connecticut, West Hartford-bound fintech Ideanomics plans to build a $283 million tech hub for blockchain technology and artificial intelligence at UConn's former campus.